Using hunger as weapon of protest

Local man upset with treatment of detainees at base

Dennis Yusk, Times Union

By Dennis Yusko

Published 9:57 pm, Friday, July 12, 2013

Vietnam veteran Elliott Adams, 66, of Sharon Springs, protest against the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base prison facility, Wednesday evening, July 10, 2013, on Wolf Road in Colonie, N.Y. Adams has been fasting for over fifty days in protest to the force-feeding of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Adams has limited himself to 300 calories for eight weeks. HeOs down to 138 pounds from 170. (Dennis Yusko/Times Union)

Vietnam veteran Elliott Adams, 66, of Sharon Springs, protest...

Vietnam veteran Elliott Adams, 66, of Sharon Springs, protest against the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base prison facility, Wednesday evening, July 10, 2013, on Wolf Road in Colonie, N.Y. Adams has been fasting for over fifty days in protest to the force-feeding of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Adams has limited himself to 300 calories for eight weeks. Heas down to 138 pounds from 170. (Dennis Yusko/Times Union)

Vietnam veteran Elliott Adams, 66, of Sharon Springs, protest...

Dorothy Richards, 81, of Colonie, right, a member of Grannies for Peace, protests to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba Wednesday evening, July 10, 2013, on Wolf Road in Colonie, N.Y. (Dennis Yusko/Times Union)

A gaunt Elliott Adams sat on a metal folding chair at the corner of Wolf Road and Central Avenue as protesters in orange jumpsuits and black hoods demanded the U.S. close its jail at Guantanamo Bay.

Adams, 66, has been fasting for six weeks in solidarity with prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, where about 106 of 166 wartime detainees refuse to eat and 45 are being force-fed by U.S. military personnel, according to media reports from this week.

Adams fought as a paratrooper in Vietnam and was twice elected mayor of Sharon Springs, a small village in Schoharie County where he lives with his wife, Ann. He eats up to 300 calories a day, typically a half-cup of oats, and drinks three liters of water. He's dropped 32 pounds since May 17, and now weighs 138. His shoulders and knees have turned bony and weak. His speech is slurred by hunger, and he no longer remembers everything he says.

But Adams' passion hasn't waned. Despite his fragile condition, he travels to share what he says is an urgent message. Speaking on the busy Colonie street corner on Wednesday, Adams said the U.S. should close the Guantanamo prison and its inmates should be tried in U.S. civilian courts. Holding suspects indefinitely without charging them violates every principal America stands for, he said.

"My flag, my government, my military is doing this in my name," said Adams, who has piercing green eyes and withdrawn cheeks. Adams stopped most eating after researching the jail at Guantanamo Bay and the force-feeding of its prisoners.

The U.S. military holds several "high-value" detainees at the naval base, including al Qaeda members accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But defense and intelligence agencies have cleared 86 — more than half of those held — for release, yet they are still imprisoned, mostly because there's nowhere to transfer them, according to reports.

Inmates at Guantanamo started the hunger strike in February to protest the conditions of their confinement, according to their lawyers. To keep them alive, members of the U.S. military feed dozens of the subjects a liquid nutrient through feeding tubes placed through the prisoners' noses, according to reports.

Medical ethicists, human rights advocates and elected officials have argued against the practice, calling it inhumane. This week, U.S. senators Dianne Feinstein of California and Dick Durbin of Illinois urged President Barack Obama to end unnecessary force-feedings of Guantanamo detainees.

"The growing problem of hunger strikes is due to the fact that many detainees have remained in legal limbo for more than a decade and have given up hope," the senators wrote. They called on the administration to close the facility as soon as possible.

About 30 people from around the Capital Region joined Adams at Wolf Road and Central Avenue Wednesday to protest the Guantanamo prison. Dorothy Richards of Colonie, an 81-year-old member of Grannies for Peace, said she demonstrated because Guantanamo had become a national embarrassment.

The protest drew mixed responses from motorists. While several beeped horns in support, a few hurled insults.

"You guys are un-American," one man screamed. Richards blamed the remark on "unawareness and fear." She called Adams a man with deep convictions who "stands for all of us."

The hunger-striker called force-feeding an appalling form of torture. The U.S. should shut down the Guantanamo facility, file formal charges against suspects who have committed crimes, and if they are found guilty, jail them in maximum security prisons on American soil, he said.

The member of the national organization Veterans for Peace intends to stay on his strict fasting diet. He says, at this point, he's risking a heart attack, kidney or liver failure.

"I don't want to die, but on the other hand, we have to stop what's happening," Adams said.